Nine candidates for 79 school board seats in Hunterdon, six days before filing deadline

There are 79 seats up for grab on Hunterdon County school boards in November. To get on the ballot, a candidate needs to submit a petition to the County Clerk by June 4 with the signatures of 10 voters registered in the district.

Today, six days before the deadline, nine people have done so countywide.

Not only are there no races, so far there are candidates for just 11% of the seats open on school boards, which oversee, by far, the largest proportion of property tax bills in a state with the highest property taxes in the nation.

"I don't know what to do here," said Hunterdon County Clerk Mary Melfi, shocked at the low number.

For many years in New Jersey, school board candidates and the levies on school operating budgets were decided by voters in April. That changed last year, when the state started allowing districts that kept budget increases within a cap set annually by the state to forego voter approval.

Districts that chose this option then moved the election of board candidates to the November general election, saving money once spent on school elections.

This year every district in Hunterdon will elect school board members in the fall, but the filing deadline for candidates is Tuesday's primary, at 4 p.m. in Flemington.

Under the old system, candidates submitted petitions to their local school board secretary, and many would do so the week it was due.

However, they also picked up their petitions from the same person, offering an easier way to gauge whether enough candidates were interested to fill each slot, or whether a race was shaping up.